ABSTRACT
Within a century of its establishment the Seventh-day Adventist church had spread from America to Europe and to Africa from where it spread to Nigeria and to Igboland in particular and finally began to make an appearance in Onitsha in 1958. From 1958 when it made its skirmish appearance in Onitsha, it had wrestled with the challenges of low acceptability among the people, who prefered to worship on Sunday as against Saturday preached and observed by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The need for this research is to fill a gap in knowledge about the church necessitated by the fact that there had not been any scholarly work done on the Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha.
The accomplished research has contributed in bringing the Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha to lime light which will enhance its gospel acceptability. The accomplished research will be of immense benefit to the Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha and to the entire Christian churches in the country that will have cause to use the research information or findings. This work as a contribution to knowledge employed qualitative research methodology to accomplish a holistic narrative on Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha in the period under study. Attempt was made to interpret, analyze and present the results chronologically and thematically. Information gathered from this narrative rely mainly on primary sources which are oral interviews, archival materials, and secondary and internet sources in its five chapters. The result of this effort was that the challenges which was inimical to the gospel spread of the Seventh-day Adventist Church Onitsha was diagnosed and workable recommendations made
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Onitsha is located at the eastern bank of the River Niger. Across the River Niger on the southern side is Asaba, the capital of Delta State. Bordered on the southern side also is Atani and Osomari communities. It is bordered on the south-south side by Nnewi and Ihiala. The population figure of Onitsha according to the 2006 census is 261, 604.1 People of Igbo origin constitute the greater percentage of its population figure. The main occupation of the inhabitants of this city is buying and selling as well as manufacturing.
According to Uzoegbunam, religion has to do with, “relationship with the supernatural forces or beings. This involves paying of devotion and worship to these forces or beings for continued existence and survival on earth.”2 We can infer here that religion embodies human beliefs and how we relate with the supernatural and with our fellow human beings. Various category of religion do exist in most societies namely: monotheism, polytheism and atheism, while in Africa there are mainly two categories of religion, which include foreign and traditional. There are several religion in the world with adherents. They include: Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Traditionalism.
In most African society there are the Traditional, Muslim and Christian religions. Within the Christian religion which is the thrust of this research, there exist the Protestants, Catholics, and Charismatic…3 Seventh-day Adventist Church is in the class of Protestant churches. The credit of establishing the first mission station in Igbo heartland will go to the Anglican Missionary Society (C.M.S).4 Onitsha was considered the heart of Igboland from where the Christian gospel penetrated all Igboland. So with this understanding, the stage was set for the scramble for Onitsha and the subsequent rivalry that ensued among the Christian denominations. According to S.N. Nwabara,
…the seed of Christianity was sown in Iboland on the occasion of the Niger expedition of 1841 when a treaty was signed between the representatives of Queen Victoria and an Ibo chief, Obi Ossai of Aboh. In it the latter granted freedom of worship to Queen Victoria….Inland penetration later developed into a three-pronged attack: first from Onitsha by the Church Missionary Society, joined by the Roman Catholic Church Mission; second from Cross River by the United Free Church of Scotland and the Primitive Methodist Missionary Society and third, from the Niger delta by the Niger Delta Pastorate. Their successes and temporary failures constitute a dramatic period in Nigerian Church history.5
As at the time of Nigeria’s independence, it was obvious that Christianity had penetrated much of Igboland amidst strong indigenous practices. In the process of its penetration it also destroyed relics of historical importance, tampered with Igbo culture, but failed to unite the existing Christian denominations.6 As at this period also the Seventh-day Adventist faith had equally arrived in Nigeria, but was yet to find its footing. Among the Adventist churches, such as Church of God Seventh-day, Seventh-day Baptists to mention but a few, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the most prominent in terms of population and spread. According to its church Manual it believes in the Biblical description of the church as “the church of God,” “the body of Christ”, and “the church of the living God”.7
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church has 28 fundamental beliefs arranged in six doctrinal categories:
a. The doctrines of God b. The doctrines of Man
c. The doctrines of Salvation d. The doctrines of church
e. The doctrines of Christian Life
f. The doctrines of Last Days events
To be called a Seventh-day Adventist is to affirm faith in these doctrines. To be called an Adventist means that one has accepted Christ in his life as Lord and personal saviour and is living his life in accordance with the Ten Commandments of God, including the fourth which commands the keeping of the Seventh-day (Sabbath) holy, which Christ said he “came not to destroy, but to fulfil”8.
To be identified as a Seventh-day Adventist one has to affirm faith in the biblical teaching of death as sleep and the future bodily resurrection of those who died in Christ Jesus. Greater percentage of the Christian denominations both orthodox and protestant believes that there is life after death. This same belief further postulates that every person has an immortal soul which will live forever either in God’s presence or otherwise and because of their belief in immortality of soul they see death as a continuation of life in a different location.
Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church believes that death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. “The life of the dead is hid with Christ in God, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, ‘then shall you also appear with Him in glory’. At His second coming all the precious dead shall hear His voice and shall come forth to glorious, immortal life.”9 The argument put forward by the Seventh-day Adventist on the immortality of soul using the biblical injunction is that if one dies and ascends to heaven, Hell or Purgatory how then can there be resurrection of the dead at the second coming of Christ? They argue, if the scripture asserts that there will be resurrection and the dead are already in heaven will those who have died and gone to heaven come down from heaven on the resurrection day? Were they not supposed to come from the grave? If they go to heaven from death with which body did they accomplish that? This ascension to heaven at death means that man has immortality, contrary to the biblical injunction that “God alone has immortality. According to SDA teaching,
But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed, until that day death is an unconscious state for all People. When Christ who is our life, appear, the resurrected, righteous and the living righteous will be glorified and caught up to meet their Lord. The second resurrection of the unrighteous will take place a thousand years later.10
Everything that Christ did for us culminates in the promise of resurrection. Without that, what hope do we have, especially because we know that contrary to popular Christian belief, the dead are in an unconscious sleep in the grave?11
Christ second coming is a belief that cuts across all Christian denominations, but the rapture associated with this apocalyptic event differs from one denomination to another. Some uphold the belief in secret rapture, that is to say that people are currently disappearing and ascending to heaven; others believe that as soon as one dies he is raptured to heaven or hell and some have added purgatory as a kind of transit camp to heaven. From the above quotation it is obvious that the Seventh-day Adventist church believes and teaches that death is an unconscious state for man and he remains as such until Christ appears according to His promise to resurrect them and cloth them with immortality thereby perfecting them for translation to heaven. According to its belief, there are two types of resurrections: the first and the second resurrection. The first resurrection takes place at Christ’s second coming and it involves the righteous dead while the second resurrection takes place after one thousand years and it involves the unrighteous. “We must continue to be a people of the word, with the word as the source and standard of our teachings and the test of experience.”12
David C. Babcock, born in New Hampshire, Ohio in the United States of America on September 12, 1854, was the man who pioneered the SDA church in West Africa. “As observed by the Seventh-day Adventist church General
Conference Session of 1905, he was appointed to take charge of the work in West Africa, which was supervised from Sierra Leone. He arrived West Africa in July1905.”13 Babcock was in charge of pioneering the work in Sierra Leone, and Ghana, until in 1913 when the entire West Africa was divided into three fields: viz Nigeria, Gold Coast, (Ghana), and Sierra Leone. David Babcock was made to take charge of the work in Nigeria in 1913.
According to the Seventh-day Adventist church compendium of 2004, “The Seventh-Day Adventist Church began its evangelism in Nigeria, in 1914 with the arrival of Elder D.C. Babcock, R.P. Dauphin, and S. Morgue.”14 Pastor William McClements arrived in Nigeria in 1919 to take over from Babcock. The labours of these men advanced Adventist faith rapidly. In 1930 Nigeria was organised into the administrative structure called Nigeria Union Mission. The divisions that constitute this structure were called; South Eastern, South Western, North Eastern, and North Western Missions. In 1972 Nigeria was further restructured into Nigerian Union Mission under the West Africa Union of Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Nigeria was further divided into ten local fields called Conferences. They include: East Nigeria Conference, West Nigeria Conference, Rivers Conference, South West Conference, North-West Conference, Edo-Delta Conference, East Central Conference, Anambra-Imo Conference, South East Conference and North-East Conference. Eastern Nigeria is considered here as the territory under the administrative delineation of the church known as Eastern Nigerian Union Conference (ENUC). It covers the eastern and southern states of Nigeria, which includes: Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers.
The earliest arrival of Seventh-day Adventist Faith close to Onitsha was in 1940 through the efforts of Mr. Isaac Obiefuna who came to Anambra state from Aba and settled in Obosi, a town less than five kilometres to Onitsha. At the death of Mr Obiefuna his friend Mr. Uwechie, an Onitsha indigene tried unsuccessfully to bring the Seventh-day Adventist church to Onitsha urban in
1950, perhaps because he was not a trained evangelist.15 An indigene of Awka, Mr Abraham Anieke Osakwe was already a Seventh-day Adventist convert by
1936, even though the church did not exist in Awka. The church made its entry into Onitsha in 1958,16 through the activities of some visitors from Aba. The church in Onitsha was established through the efforts of itinerant Christian book sellers. According to Akwarandu,
There was occasional incursion by members of colporteur (Christian book sellers) squad whose main interest was to sell our variety of books on health, Bibles, Ellen G. White series, Bible stories and other doctrinal books. However, these early pathfinders were not domiciled in this area, but were visiting from Enugu and Aba perhaps without coordinated program of action on their marketing area and strategy for actual evangelistic outreach. This lack of coordinated and focused evangelistic approach on the area under reference does not mean that East Nigeria Conference has no interest in propagating the Advent message across un-entered areas of its jurisdiction.17
Un-entered areas in SDA parlance are those territories where the church has not been established and before 1970 the present territory called Anambra state was considered as such. Anambra state indigenes such as C.N. Okeke, an indigene of Nkpor who returned from Jingri, Plateau state with the Adventist faith and Onwuemelie Nduruka, an indigene of Oba, (about 5km from Onitsha) who was converted in Aba both played prominent roles towards the establishment of Adventist faith in Onitsha. Through the activities of itinerant Christian book sellers, resilient Anambra state indigenes and other faithful members serving as the nucleus for its take off, the Seventh-day Adventist faith formally settled in Onitsha in 1970 at Government Primary School Fegge, and that was after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.18
One of the major challenges the Seventh-day Adventist church faced in Onitsha was that of church building. This problem made the church to domicile from private homes to hotels and from primary schools to town halls. This did not help the church to make progress in terms of evangelism and growth. This was also part of the reason why the church history was not properly documented. Part of the outcome was that the church was not officially commissioned as a church.
The achievement attained by the church was that of being allocated plots of land by the Anambra state government on 15th Sept.,1988 which set the church on the part of organization or commissioning as a church and growth in evangelism. The problem of parsonage has continued to be a barrier to the growth and development of the Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha. Though it has existed for the past 29 years (1970-1999) in Onitsha yet it has not been fully accepted by majority of the inhabitants of Onitsha who still look at the church with suspicion. Some see the church as a kind of cult group which means that it is not a Christian body. The lifestyle practiced and preached by the church seems odd and unacceptable to the inhabitants of Onitsha. Because of this it attracts few adherents compared with other mainstream churches that exist in Onitsha.
MAP OF ONITSHA AND SURROUNDING TOWNS
Map 2: A cartographic Map of Onitsha showing the various wards, River Niger, Major Roads, and Boundary Towns.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
From its weak foothold in Onitsha in1958, the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) has spread its gospel beyond Onitsha to the surrounding communities. Though its progress is not commensurate with that made by other denominations, like the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church (CMS), its presence has been felt by the people. It started as a church in Government Primary school Fegge, Onitsha; today part of its success is that it had succeeded in erecting a befitting worship place and other branches within Onitsha metropolis. Despite its progress in spreading the gospel in Onitsha and its environs no scholarly work has been done on the SDA church in Onitsha (The Growth of SDA Church in Anambra, 2010 is a non-scholarly published booklet). What is the reason for this seeming neglect of the church by scholars? What is the reason for the low patronage of the gospel of the Seventh-day Adventist church by the inhabitants of Onitsha? It is this gap in knowledge that this research attempts to fill.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of this research is to find out why despite its 29years (1970-1999) stint in Onitsha, the Seventh-day Adventist church has not attracted any scholarly attention. What have such churches that arrived Onitsha earlier done to make their brand of gospel gain grounds, so that the SDA church could emulate their style of evangelism? Have the people of Onitsha benefited from the presence of SDA church in Onitsha so far, as this will give room for improvement?
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research is going to be of immense benefit to the Seventh-day
Adventist church Onitsha and Nigeria in general. It will also benefit the entire
Christian churches in the country that will have cause to use the research information or findings to improve their denomination activities. The research findings will benefit the Government of Anambra State and its social agencies when they want to know about church missionary activities in Onitsha. The International organizations such as United Nations, UNESCO, Foreign Embassies and other social organizations will share in the benefit as they seek to know the history of church missionary activities in Onitsha. Those doing a general research on the history of Onitsha will find this research information resourceful. Finally it will serve as a source of reference for further academic research on Christian missionary activities.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This research covers the period of 29years (1970-1999). The year 1970 marked the time Seventh-day Adventist church (SDA) first congregated in Onitsha after the Nigerian-Biafran civil war. The terminal date of 1999 is remarkable as the dawn of the fourth republic which ushered in democracy after long years of military dictatorship in Nigeria. This terminal date was the period Nigeria attained political stability that helped the Christian church to consolidate after the civil war.
SOURCES, ORGANIZATION AND METHODOLOGY
The data for this research is mainly gathered from two sources, namely: primary and secondary sources. The primary sources are mainly archival materials and oral interviews.
The secondary sources are mainly books, journals, magazines, unpublished projects and thesis. Various public libraries in Enugu, Awka, Onitsha, Ogidi and Nsukka including institutional libraries were used in this
research. Internet sources will also be consulted. The use of Inter-disciplinary sources also will be used in this research.
In terms of organization this research is divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the Introduction. Chapter two covers Onitsha before 1970. Chapter three will examine the early beginnings of the Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha 1970-1983. Chapter four covers Growth, Organization and Achievements 1983-1999 while chapter five Concludes the research. The methodology to be applied is qualitative analysis. This would entail narrative and analysis of data gathered in the course of this research.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
In this study some conceptual framework will be employed in order to achieve a clearer understanding of the gospel of Christ according to the Seventh-day Adventist church. This conceptual framework revolves around the concept of the state of the dead.
The vast majority of Christian denominations believe that there is life after death. This implies that every person has a soul which will live forever either in God’s presence or otherwise. The reason for this is because man possesses an immortal soul and that this soul will live on after death. Because of their belief in immortality of soul they see death as a continuation of life in a different realm. Based on this premise that man possesses an immortal soul they came up with a theory on where the soul goes when death occur. To some of these Christian denominations at death it is straight to heaven on one hand for those adjudged to have lived a good life while on the other hand for the evil doers it is straight to hell.
For other religious sect, when a person dies they come again revisiting the living. And they call it re-visitations, like the apparition of Virgin Mary. For
others when a person dies it is finished: he is dead. For the Indians, Chinese, Japanese and other Eastern religions dead people come back again in inform of reincarnated being. This concept of reincarnation is mainly held by the Hindus, Buddhists and some African traditional religious beliefs.
Socrates in his concept distinguishes between the world of change and the world of forms. He sees the soul as belonging to the world of forms arguing that it is invisible, reflective and naturally rules the body. Ideas are not physical things, so they must belong to a spiritual realm which is more real than the material realm. The soul is that which can grasp these ideas and so it too must belong to that realm. Since forms are immutable; so too must the soul. Opposite forms cannot exist in the same object (e.g small and big). The soul derives its life through association with the life form. This association means it cannot admit death. The soul must therefore be immortal.19 Socrates main argument is that the soul has an independent existence and that it is immutable, hence immortal.
Plato in his concept argues that each individual thing has its own particular evil which will cause it to deteriorate and eventually to be destroyed. Just as the body is prone to disease so is the soul open to injustice and ignorance. Plato’s point is that if anything is destroyed it can be only through its own specific evil. We must conclude that it is only through its inner weaknesses that the soul can be destroyed. We have no proof that the soul is made worse morally by death of the body. The soul’s specific affliction is immorality which can harm but not destroy it. Plato understands immortality (pre-existence) of the soul in terms of reincarnation. Plato draws an analogy with sleep. Sleep comes after being awake and being awake comes after sleep. Likewise just as death comes from life so must death return to life again?20 In summary what Plato is postulating is that the soul cannot be destroyed, neither can it die; therefore the soul must be immortal.
All these theories both from the Christian denominations and non- Christians are premised on the ground that man has an immortal soul that is to say that man has a soul within him and therefore a destination must be found for this soul at death. So death according to these theories is continuation of life in a different location. There seem to be an agreement between the Bible and the Holy Quran on the state of the dead and the resurrection of the dead. According to the Holy Quran
It is he who sends water down the sky in due measure. We revive dead land with it and likewise you will be resurrected from the grave. Chapter 4:11.21
And He is the one who gave you life; then he causes you to die and then will again give you life… Chapter 22:66.22
If you doubt about the resurrection, then listen we created you from dust then from a sperm-drop, then from a clinging cloth, and then from a lump of flesh, formed and unformed.23
Another school of thought postulates that death is a complete cessation of life. They see death as the opposite of life. God said to man “the day you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you will surely die” but Satan came and said: “you will not surely die.” As a result of sin, God said to man to dust you shall return at death for out of it you were taken. God said man and woman have sinned and He banned them from eating of the tree of life so that they cannot be immortal.24 If they had eaten the tree of life they would have lived forever. God said man and woman have sinned and they should not be allowed to eat of the tree of life which would have perpetuated their lives and make them immortal and so God sent Angels to guard the tree of life.25 So according to the Bible human beings are not immortal. Because if they had eaten of the tree of life they would have being immortal. The Bible likens death to sleep. So the dead are waiting in the grave, till their resurrection. So when one dies he is sleeping and
knows nothing until he is awakened again on the resurrection morning. Jesus refers to Lazarus as sleeping, even though he had died. Peter acknowledged that David is not yet ascended to heaven because his grave is still with us.
What is death? Is a question that if answered can solve the riddle from these concepts. Clinical death is a complete cessation of life. Encarta Dictionary defines death as, “end of being alive, the ending of all vital functions or processes in an organism or cell, end of something, the destruction or extinction of something.”26 When a man dies he does not go somewhere to exist. At death; you are surely dead. You don’t go and live somewhere because you are not immortal, Only God is immortal. Man shall become immortal at the second coming of Christ when the dead shall be resurrected to receive immortality. Death is a complete reversal of life and of Gods creative process. God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. The Bible teaches that man is a living soul and that means that man does not have soul within him. Mathematically; the body + Breath of life = living soul (a living person). Every living person is a living soul. Dead people are dead souls. Man will be given immortality at resurrection. So the idea of immortal soul came from the theories that man has to find a place for the soul which they postulate exists independent of the body. At death God takes away his breath, the life principle and the living soul becomes dust. The breath of life is the life principle given by God to all living beings. Only God has the breath of life or the life principle. Only God is life.
At death dust (body) returns back to dust and the spirit (the life principle/breath of life) returns to God who gave it. The body returning to dust means it deteriorates or decays and it remains in that state until resurrection. At death man and animal equally share the same fate, they don’t return to heaven at death. Death is a reversal of what happened at creation. When death occurs everything ceases. 27
Some Christian denominations seem to have adopted immortality of soul from the Aristotelian and Platonic teachings on immortality of soul. If you are immortal it means you will never die. But man didn’t eat the tree of life, according to the Bible. The time of reward is coming until then the dead are waiting in the grave.28
The SDA church has adopted the foregone theory which avows that
Death is a state of unconscious sleeps till resurrection as one of her doctrines. It also debunks the teachings of immortality of soul and its related theories. This particular theory adopted by the SDA church seems to be supported by the Muslim’s Holy Quran and hence seem to have solve the riddle on the state of the dead.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Nwajojie’s Indigenization of the Liturgy in Igbo Traditional Marriage Custom: An Anthropo-liturgico-Pastoral Study and C. Maduh’s Christianizing the Igbo Traditional Love and Morality Rites agree that the Igbo are deeply religious and that their religious life manifest in all aspects of their lives – social, cultural, and political – which could be observed easily in their speech, eating, myths, recreation, work and business.29 This deep religious sense of the Igbo manifests in their belief in the Supreme Being who is omnipotent and omnipresent. It is this deep sense of religious belief of the Igbo that was brought into other religious denominations on conversion. This religious disposition of the Igbo made them to embrace other religious affiliations, such as Christianity. These books explain the belief system of the Igbo who before the coming of Christianity believe in life-after-death; hence it was easy for the Igbo to accept the teachings that were in tandem with their ancestral beliefs on the state of the dead. These books which dealt extensively with the Igbo belief system failed to
capture the beliefs of other Christians not in tandem with its thrust such as that held by the Seventh-day Adventist, which this research hopes to provide.
Liddy’s Iboland: Realising the Mission Dream and Arinze’s From the Shadow to the Reality agree that Catholicism’s tolerance of non-catholic faith has given success to the spread of Catholic faith among the Igbo of Onitsha, which will help to provide a comparative analysis of Catholic Church and other church acceptability in Onitsha. While this research will in comparison provide information on low-acceptability of the SDA church in Onitsha.
C. Maduh in his study, Christianizing the Igbo Traditional Love and Morality Rites recognized that the mystical presence of God made a deep impression on the Igbo traditional belief system and hence they considered the supernatural as real as their physical world, and earlier Christian missionaries saw this as an opening in their bid to win the Igbo converts. This book brought to light how earlier Christian Missionaries succeeded in making their gospel acceptable to the Igbo. This book did not mention the Seventh-day Adventist Church as one of those earlier churches who took advantage of the traditional belief system of the Igbo to enhance their gospel spread. This research mentions how the SDA church should take advantage of the Igbo traditional belief to spread its gospel in Onitsha.
Ekechi’s Missionary Enterprise and Rivalry in Igboland, 1857-1914. S.N. Nwabara’s Iboland: A Century of Contact with British 1860-1960 and A.E. Afigbo’s Ropes of Sand: A Study in Igbo History and Culture, acknowledge that the Christian Missionary Society (CMS) was the first to arrive Onitsha in 1841 led by Samuel Adjayi Crowther, a Yoruba ex-slave. The CMS arrived the lower Niger and established a Mission station at Onitsha. These books provide the background and the time of the early missionary arrival in Igbo land. Certainly it did not in any way mention the Seventh-day Adventist Church as one of those churches established by the early missionaries. Ayabuike writing in his “The planting of the Anglican Church in Eastern State of Nigeria, 1857-1922, stated
that, “On Monday July 27, 1857 the first Anglican church was planted by the CMS, and on August 2nd, the same year, the first church worship was conducted by John Christopher Taylor, an Igbo ex-slave.”30 It will be outside the scope of this book to mention the Seventh-day Adventist church which had not arrived Onitsha at the time of the arrival of the first missionaries to Igboland. The information on the arrival of SDA church which was established in Onitsha in
1970 will be provided in this research
The above author was also corroborated by Francis Anyika et al, “The
Role of Ex-Slaves in the Planting and Expansion of Christianity in Igboland,
1857-1891” he stated that,
It was on 25th July 1857 that the evangelistic party that left Sierra Leone, May 13th 1857 got to Onitsha its destination. The following day, July 26th being Sunday the Revs. Crowther and John C. Taylor accompanied by six men who were among those on board the vessel, “the Plaid” went on shore to pay a visit to the king of Onitsha, Obi Akazue and to declare to him the purpose of their visit. His majesty who came to the throne in
1851, received his August visitors very warmly, listened patiently to them and gave them a free hand both in diffusing the gospel message in his kingdom and choosing where they would like to erect a mission station. A suitable site for a mission station was eventually chosen and preparations made immediately to erect there a small church of mud thatch. The missionaries had come full of determination to bring Igboland under the banner of Christianity. The mission that was born as a result of these developments went by the name, “The Church Missionary Society Lower Niger Mission.31
The above work provides the information on how the earlier missionaries planted their churches on arrival in Igboland. Though mention was not made of the Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha, it goes on to show that the SDA church Onitsha was not among the earlier churches planted. I.R Ozigbo’s Igbo
Catholicism: The Onitsha connection 1967-1984, states that it was Leon Lejeune who founded the prefecture of Southern Nigeria but Joseph Lutz was the first Catholic missionary to arrive Onitsha. They encountered the hostility and strong rivalry from the CMS missionaries who had arrived many years earlier. The CMS Missionaries couldn’t tolerate the entry of the Catholic into their territories. Indeed, most of the orthodox churches have recorded scholarly attention as Ozigbo’s work on Igbo Catholicism underscores. However, the neglect by most scholars to pay even a passing attention to SDA informed this research.
It was the protestant opposition that was the major obstacle to the Catholic faith expansion in the Niger area and so Joseph Lutz adopted the evangelism method of providing for the physical needs of the people, and this charitable evangelism method paid off, as the Igbo began to accept the Catholic faith.32 This method of spreading the Christian gospel in Igboland adopted by the Catholics to win the Igbo converts is in-tandem with the view of Chukwudum Okolo (ed.) who states that “an Indigenous Igbo church is one which understands the Igbo man in his daily anxieties, sorrow, frustration, joy, and hopes and relates them to the good news proclaimed by Christ.”33 These books provide a lot of insight on what method worked for the Catholic which will be of help to later arrivals to the area such as the SDA. This book in its chapters did not mention the SDA church Onitsha as one of those protestant churches that opposed the catholic spread in Onitsha, so this research will also equip the SDA church Onitsha with the above method of spreading the gospel.
Desmond Forrestal writing in his book, The Second Burial of Bishop
Shanahan, stated,
But they were also an industrious and enterprising people, intellectually curious, anxious to better themselves. The offer of education was one that could make a powerful appeal to them. His own experience of
the school in Ogboli (in Onitsha) had shown him how quick they were to avail of a school when it was offered. The more he considered the matter, the more convinced he was that the school was the key to the conversion of the Ibos. Ogboli had taught him something else, that the Ibos were unusually open to the Christian message.34
This is the book that provided the needed information on the enterprising characteristics of the Igbo which will be of immense help to any denomination that wants to evangelize them and to any researcher on the Igbo. This book would have done better if it had captured the SDA church Onitsha since its thrust was Onitsha. This work will also help the research in understanding the enterprising spirit of the Igbo.
According to S.N. Nwabara, Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain
1860-1960 by “1960 Christianity had penetrated Iboland, overcome terrible indigenous practices, destroyed relics of historical documentation and, to some extent, altered Ibo culture.”35
It is obvious that these early missionary arrival to Igboland achieved success amidst serious rivalry in their efforts to spread the gospel. These rivalries which ensued among them necessitated their call for a “Berlin conference” in Calabar in order to partition Igboland among the various contending Christian denominations. This so-called portioning of Igboland to the contending religious denominations led to the adoption of “Christian villages,”36 but it must be observed here that the Igbo are already deeply religious in their dispositions and this is what made it easy for the early Christian missionaries to convert them to Christian faith. It was an obvious fact that liturgy and the provision of educational and social infrastructure needed by the Igbo became the engine that gave success to missionary endeavours in Onitsha. Ikenga R.A. Ozigbo concurred with this in “The Definitive Rehabilitation of Bishop Shanahan: A review Article” in Bulletin of Ecumenical
Theology: Human Right – The African Perspectives. According to him “…school had already become the principal work of the mission. The school eventually became the key to the conversion of Igbo people to Christianity.”37
These books will help to provide the needed insight on the disadvantages of the activities of early Christian missionaries in Igboland. The Protestants, including the Seventh-day Adventist faith arrived the scene latter with the gospel slogan of sola scriptura, the Bible and the Bible alone as their basic tool for feeding the people. It will be easier for the Igbo to adopt the belief that will permit them to keep their previous traditional religious practices and culture in the new faith than to adopt the one that may demand a contrary position, it would also be easier to yield to a gospel that adopted the method of providing for the physical needs of the people than the one that talks about the Bible and the Bible alone, hence the early missionaries seem to have made speedy progress.
Though A.E. Afigbo disagrees with the above stand by stating that “it was not through social services like Medical clinics and orphanages and the establishment of Christian villages…these methods could not work the magic of converting the Igbo to Christianity in large numbers…in effect the Igbo were not converted to Christianity, they were ensnared for Christianity by the schools,”38 but in the same breath he seems to have disagreed with himself when he agreed that it was “through the schools the missions exploited to some advantage the burning desire of the Igbo to become as experts as the British in the manipulation of their physical world.”39 Certainly establishment of schools and provision of social needs of the Igbo played a great role to convert the Igbo to Christianity, which is an advantage that this research will expose SDA Onitsha
to.
The Seventh-day Adventist church had already shown its presence in Nigeria as early as 1914, while Pastor Clifford and his team that brought the gospel under the banner of the Seventh-day Adventist church arrived Igboland as early as 1923. Most gospel work done by this early Seventh-day Adventist
missionaries were not documented, worst still this early missionary work was not done in Onitsha area. Even though most of the early Christian missionaries to Igboland first set foot in Onitsha, the Seventh-day Adventist church missionaries first set foot in Ngwaland of Abia state, to the neglect of the Onitsha considered the cradle of Christianity in Igboland. Even these early missionaries in their writings did not mention Onitsha and its environs, thus, creating a documentation gap in the history of Seventh-day Adventist church Onitsha within the period of this study.
One of the methods that gave success to the Presbyterian gospel endeavours was as M.C. Njoku observed, the introduction of “a number of trades that have constituted the basis of economic survival of many Nigerians such as tailoring, baking, brick making, and agriculture,”40 which SDA copied to a great extent. This unpublished PhD thesis paid attention to the activities of the SDA church in Nigeria without paying much attention to the church in Onitsha, which makes this research a necessity.
According to Dave Nyekwere, “The Seventh-day Adventist church adopted the medical missionary method of evangelism.”41 In his Medical Institutions of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Southern Nigeria 1940-2000, Nyekwere delved into the medical ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist church. The major part of this book is centred on the medical missionary endeavours of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Nigeria without a mention of Onitsha which lays credence to the fact that the pioneers of the faith concentrated their efforts in Ngwaland. Though this book will prove helpful in the research on the medical missionary efforts of the church, it will also be helpful to discover why the church had a slow expansion in Nigeria. This research hopes to draw attention to this so far neglected area by the SDA authors.
The Seventh-day Adventist church affirms a belief in the gospel commission given to the church of God and hence aver according to her church Manual that:
To belong to the church of God is a unique and soul-satisfying privilege. It is God’s purpose to gather out a people from far and corners of the earth to bind them into one body, the body of Christ, of which He is the living head. All who are children of God in Christ Jesus are members of this body, and in this relationship they may enjoy fellowship with each other and fellowship also with their Lord.42
It is this gospel commission that served to propel the church to seek to establish its presence in Onitsha. Since the foregoing literatures fail to capture the gospel efforts of the church in Onitsha, it is the aim of this research to fill this gap.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
For the purpose of clarity and understanding of this research certain terms need to be properly explained.
Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) – Seventh-day is derived from the seventh-day of the week which is Saturday, commonly referred to as the Sabbath day in the Bible. While the word Adventist means someone who is looking forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ. Invariably ‘Seventh-day Adventist’ means someone who keeps the seventh-day (Sabbath) as a day of worship and looks forward to the second coming of Christ. Adding the word church to the term gave birth to a people who are keeping the seventh-day (Sabbath) and are waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ.
Eastern Nigerian Union Conference (ENUC)
This is an administrative delineation of the Seventh-day Adventist churches in the entire south-eastern states of Nigeria into the units called conferences. ENUC has 10 conferences under it. Each of the conferences is also further divided into smaller units called Districts and Districts are further divided into local churches. A district comprises several churches under its care. On rare occasions, a District may comprise only one church.
Anambra-Imo Conference
This is also an administrative delineation of the church that caters for all the Districts of the Seventh-day Adventist Churches within Anambra and Imo States. It has a total of 22 Districts and over 31local churches. Anambra Mission was carved out of this conference.
Anambra Mission
This is an administrative delineation of the church that caters for all the smaller delineations called Districts in Anambra state. Anambra Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist church has 14 Districts under her care with a total of about 19 organized churches and another 15 unorganized (these are small churches that are yet to have the status of full-fledged church).
Church Missionary Society (CMS)
The church Missionary Society was a society of the Church of England endeavouring “to propagate the knowledge of the gospel to the continent of Africa”.43
1 National population census statistics 2006.
1 Uzoegbunam, A.O. A Course Book of Social Sciences, “Religion and its place in human life.” Oko: Anampoly Printing and Publishing Company Ltd., 1989,
22.
1 Anthony I. Nwabughuogu, Problems of Nation Building in Africa, Owerri: Fasen Educational and Research Publications (FERP), (n.d), 81.
1 Emefie Ikenga-Metuh and Christopher. I. Ejizu, Hundred Years of Catholicism in Eastern Nigeria 1885-1985; The Nnewi Story, (A Historico-Missiological Analysis), Nimo: Asele Institute, 1985, 4.
1 S.N. Nwabara, Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain 1860-1960, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977, 47-48.
1 Nwabara, Iboland: A Century... 58.
1 Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 18th Edition, Maryland: Review and
Herald Publishing Association, 2010, 22.
1 E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, Silver Springs: Better Living Publications,
1990, 460.
1 Seventh-day Adventist Believe: A Biblical Exposition of Fundamental
Doctrines, Boise ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2005, 387.
1 Robert Mclver, Feed My Sheep: Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Ibadan: Positive Press, 2017, 243.
1 Jonas Arrais, “Theological Unity in a Growing World Church: A call to obedience to the Lord and His word,” Elder’s Digest, Vol.23 No.2 April/June
2017, 5.
1 David O. Babalola, “The Origin of the Three Nigeria Union: Eastern, Northern and Western Nigeria Union Conferences”, Seventh-day Adventist Church Hundred Years in Nigeria: Centenary celebration, Aba: Valiant Packaging and Publishing Co., (n.d), 33.
1 Ninety Years of Adventism in Nigeria, 1914-2004: A Compendium, Communication and PARL Department of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria, 2004, 19.
1 Obinna M. Akubude, The Growth and Impact of Seventh-Day Adventist
Church Nkpor in Anambra-Imo Conference 1983-2001, an Unpublished
Research Project of Babcock University, Ogun State, 2003, 40.
1 Obinna M. Akubude, The Growth and Impact of Seventh-Day Adventist
Church Nkpor…2003, 45.
1 G. Akwarandu, The Growth of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Anambra
State, (n.p) 2010, 1.
1 G. Akwarandu, The Growth of Seventh-day Adventist Church… 9
1www.muslimfuneral24-7.org/tag/resurrection/html accessed 18/5/17
1www.muslimfuneral24-7.org/tag/resurrection/html accessed 19/5/17
1 www.muslimfuneral24-7.org/tag/resurrection/html accessed 22/5/17
1 www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/aristotle_body_soul.html accessed 22/5/17
1 www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/aristotle_body_soul.html accessed 24/5/17
1 Genesis 2:16,17; 3:19,22,23 (NKJV)
1 Genesis 3: 22,24 (NKJV)
1 Encarta English Dictionary
1 Seventh-day Adventist Believe: A Biblical Exposition of Fundamental
Doctrines, Boise ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2005, 285.
1 Job 14:13-15; Daniel 12:2; 2Sam 7:12. (NKJV)
1 C. Maduh, Christianizing the Igbo Traditional Love and Morality Rites, Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd., 2005, 9.
1 I. Anyabuike, The Planting of the Anglican Church in Eastern State of Nigeria1857-1922 in M.C. Njoku, unpublished PhD Thesis, Dept. of Religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka 2014, 11.
1 Francis Anyika et al, African Humanities: Humanities and Nation Building, “The Role of Ex-Slaves in the Planting and Expansion of Christianity in Igboland, 1857-1891” Nsukka: Afro-Orbis Publishing Co., Ltd., 2005, 194.
1 I.R.A. Ozigbo, Igbo Catholicism: The Onitsha Connection 1967-1984, Onitsha: Africana-Fep Publishers Ltd., 1985, 6-10.
1 Chukwudum B. Okolo (ed.), The Igbo Church and Quest for God, Obosi:
Pacific College Press Ltd., 1985, 4.
1 Desmond Forristal, The Second Burial of Bishop Shanahan, Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1990, 63.
1 S.N. Nwabara, Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain 1860-1960, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977, 47.
1 V. A. Nwosu, “The Growth of the Catholic Church in Onitsha Ecclesiastical Province,” Bulleting of Ecumenical Theology: Human Right – The African Perspective. The Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologian, Vol. 4, 1-2,
1991, 41.
1 Ikenga R.A. Ozigbo, “The Definitive Rehabilitation of Bishop Shanahan: A Review Article” in Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology: Human Right – The African Perspectives, Published by The Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologian Vol. 4, 1-2, 1991, 125.
1 A.E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: A Study in Igbo History and Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981, 340.
1 Afigbo, Ropes of Sand…, 340.
1 M. C. Njoku, The History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Igboland, unpublished PhD Thesis, Dept. of Religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
2014, 28.
1 D. Nyekwere, Medical Institutions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South-Eastern Nigeria: An Instrument of Evangelism 1940 -2000, Lagos: Natural Prints, 2004, 29.
1 Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 18th edition, Maryland: Review and
Herald Publishing Association, 2010, 22.
1 C.O. Agunwa and A.E.D.Mgbemene eds, Reflections on Aspects of Anglican
Teaching, Onitsha: Varsity Ltd., 1988, 22. National population census statistics 2006.
1 Uzoegbunam, A.O. A Course Book of Social Sciences, “Religion and its place in human life.” Oko: Anampoly Printing and Publishing Company Ltd., 1989,
22.
1 Anthony I. Nwabughuogu, Problems of Nation Building in Africa, Owerri: Fasen Educational and Research Publications (FERP), (n.d), 81.
1 Emefie Ikenga-Metuh and Christopher. I. Ejizu, Hundred Years of Catholicism in Eastern Nigeria 1885-1985; The Nnewi Story, (A Historico-Missiological Analysis), Nimo: Asele Institute, 1985, 4.
1 S.N. Nwabara, Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain 1860-1960, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977, 47-48.
1 Nwabara, Iboland: A Century... 58.
1 Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 18th Edition, Maryland: Review and
Herald Publishing Association, 2010, 22.
1 E. G. White, The Desire of Ages, Silver Springs: Better Living Publications,
1990, 460.
1 Seventh-day Adventist Believe: A Biblical Exposition of Fundamental
Doctrines, Boise ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2005, 387.
1 Robert Mclver, Feed My Sheep: Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Ibadan: Positive Press, 2017, 243.
1 Jonas Arrais, “Theological Unity in a Growing World Church: A call to obedience to the Lord and His word,” Elder’s Digest, Vol.23 No.2 April/June
2017, 5.
1 David O. Babalola, “The Origin of the Three Nigeria Union: Eastern, Northern and Western Nigeria Union Conferences”, Seventh-day Adventist Church Hundred Years in Nigeria: Centenary celebration, Aba: Valiant Packaging and Publishing Co., (n.d), 33.
1 Ninety Years of Adventism in Nigeria, 1914-2004: A Compendium, Communication and PARL Department of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria, 2004, 19.
1 Obinna M. Akubude, The Growth and Impact of Seventh-Day Adventist
Church Nkpor in Anambra-Imo Conference 1983-2001, an Unpublished
Research Project of Babcock University, Ogun State, 2003, 40.
1 Obinna M. Akubude, The Growth and Impact of Seventh-Day Adventist
Church Nkpor…2003, 45.
1 G. Akwarandu, The Growth of Seventh-day Adventist Church in Anambra
State, (n.p) 2010, 1.
1 G. Akwarandu, The Growth of Seventh-day Adventist Church… 9
1www.muslimfuneral24-7.org/tag/resurrection/html accessed 18/5/17
1www.muslimfuneral24-7.org/tag/resurrection/html accessed 19/5/17
1 www.muslimfuneral24-7.org/tag/resurrection/html accessed 22/5/17
1 www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/aristotle_body_soul.html accessed 22/5/17
1 www.scandalon.co.uk/philosophy/aristotle_body_soul.html accessed 24/5/17
1 Genesis 2:16,17; 3:19,22,23 (NKJV)
1 Genesis 3: 22,24 (NKJV)
1 Encarta English Dictionary
1 Seventh-day Adventist Believe: A Biblical Exposition of Fundamental
Doctrines, Boise ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 2005, 285.
1 Job 14:13-15; Daniel 12:2; 2Sam 7:12. (NKJV)
1 C. Maduh, Christianizing the Igbo Traditional Love and Morality Rites, Enugu: Snaap Press Ltd., 2005, 9.
1 I. Anyabuike, The Planting of the Anglican Church in Eastern State of Nigeria1857-1922 in M.C. Njoku, unpublished PhD Thesis, Dept. of Religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka 2014, 11.
1 Francis Anyika et al, African Humanities: Humanities and Nation Building, “The Role of Ex-Slaves in the Planting and Expansion of Christianity in Igboland, 1857-1891” Nsukka: Afro-Orbis Publishing Co., Ltd., 2005, 194.
1 I.R.A. Ozigbo, Igbo Catholicism: The Onitsha Connection 1967-1984, Onitsha: Africana-Fep Publishers Ltd., 1985, 6-10.
1 Chukwudum B. Okolo (ed.), The Igbo Church and Quest for God, Obosi: Pacific College Press Ltd., 1985, 4.
1 Desmond Forristal, The Second Burial of Bishop Shanahan, Dublin: Veritas Publications, 1990, 63.
1 S.N. Nwabara, Iboland: A Century of Contact with Britain 1860-1960, London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1977, 47.
1 V. A. Nwosu, “The Growth of the Catholic Church in Onitsha Ecclesiastical
Province,” Bulleting of Ecumenical Theology: Human Right – The African
Perspective. The Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologian, Vol. 4, 1-2,
1991, 41.
1 Ikenga R.A. Ozigbo, “The Definitive Rehabilitation of Bishop Shanahan: A Review Article” in Bulletin of Ecumenical Theology: Human Right – The African Perspectives, Published by The Ecumenical Association of Nigerian Theologian Vol. 4, 1-2, 1991, 125.
1 A.E. Afigbo, Ropes of Sand: A Study in Igbo History and Culture, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981, 340.
1 Afigbo, Ropes of Sand…, 340.
1 M. C. Njoku, The History of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Igboland, unpublished PhD Thesis, Dept. of Religion, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
2014, 28.
1 D. Nyekwere, Medical Institutions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South-Eastern Nigeria: An Instrument of Evangelism 1940 -2000, Lagos: Natural Prints, 2004, 29.
1 Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 18th edition, Maryland: Review and
Herald Publishing Association, 2010, 22.
1 C.O. Agunwa and A.E.D.Mgbemene eds, Reflections on Aspects of AnglicanTeaching, Onitsha: Varsity Ltd., 1988, 22.
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